04-11-2001 12:04									#1
	irrigation and salt water Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I usually play on the archipelago setting, enjoying the more peaceful gameplay that gives. The algorithm to create the island tend to create very serpentive islands, however, and this is where my problems starts. In my last game I did not have one single source of fresh water. I had to go to war with my neighbours to get access to a lake... Only to realize that I couldn't lead the water past a mountain range.


At that point I had invested about three hours in the game, and decided to stick it out. It didn't look that bad at the time, I had just killed off the Babylonians and the progress seemed pretty good. Then I got republic, and my core cities just got left behind... Five hours wasted time, just because I didn't have a river.

Now, would it really be so hard to ensure that there is a river at the starting point? Wasn't this implemented in one of the civ products already?

Finally, I think the rule is quite silly as it is. While I can understand not being able to irrigate in the desert without a fresh water source, in my last game I had a fairly large patch of jungle adjacent. It is pretty simple, isn't it? If there is a jungle, there obviously is fresh water around... Likewise with forest.

Firaxis, for your next patch (sobbing quitely about the need to ask for a patchfix less than a week after release... CTP, I blame you) could you at least include an option for the fresh water rule?

Thanks!